Double Trouble
by Ability Bility Ility
Summary: Post Volume 2 - Claire moves to New York, Peter is already working as a paramedic, Adam crawls up and is ready for more mischief and a cured Sylar is hungry for new abilities, especially one: the ability to live forever... Peter/Claire/Adam
1. The New Everyday

_**This story takes place **_**after ****Volume 2**_** and will (probably) center on Peter, Claire, two well known and much beloved villains as well as a few more or less interesting OC.**_

_**Please comment on my writing, as English is not my first language.**_

_**Also, I've never been to NY and don't know what it looks like :p so just pretend I'm right whenever I make up a location.**_

_*** Thanks to **__Rurrlock-God of Power's__** review, I realized I forgot to say something important here, that I actually meant to say:**_

**Nathan does not hold the press-conference at the end of Volume 2, in this verse. Thus, he doesn't get shot.**

**_Thanks for pointing it out!_  
**

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Chapter 1

**The New Everyday**

Traffic in New York was hell. Peter stuck his head out of the ambulance and glared at the endless queue in front of them. At the far end of the street, several hundred meters away, the light from a fire could be seen against the evening sky.

"Tough luck for the survivors of that crash," his partner Lynda in the driver seat said and scratched her brunette head. "Told you we should have taken the other way."

Peter gave her a look. His colleague didn't seem too upset about not making it to the accident in time to save the people who could be on the brink of dying right now. But to Peter, it meant everything.

"Think we can drive up onto the sidewalk, if I annoy people by turning on and off the siren and bump the horn a couple of times?" Lynda said, looking around outside.

"I'll be right back," Peter said and jumped out of the ambulance.

"Hey, what? Petrelli!"

Peter slalomed between the cars and cabs until he reached the sidewalk. There, he spurt into an empty street, closed his eyes and suddenly vanished.

When he reappeared, he was standing in the middle of a park in the shadow of a tree. A bus had run straight through the high fence and collided with a big statue at the edge of the lawn, and now all of it was a burning inferno.

He wasted no time in walking up to the flames, focusing his mind as he did so. Yes… he could here people's thoughts from inside the bus. There were people still in there!

Raising his hand, he moved even closer. The heat was immense, but Peter bit his lip and kept going. As he got to the jammed bus door, he wiggled his hand. The door rocked sideways from the telekinesy but didn't budge completely Instead, he grabbed physically it with both his hands and slit it away with his super strength. More flames burst at him from the interior and his hands were burnt from the hot metal, but he stepped inside without caring about the pain. His burns slowly healed themselves as he moved forward, searching the bus, to find two people lying unconscious between the seats in the far back of the vehicle. A little boy and a woman.

Peter grabbed them both by their hands, made sure to make them all invisible with another of his abilities, and then closed his eyes again and focused on the spot outside the bus where he had been before.

In no time at all, all three of them were tumbling onto the grass on the other side of the statue. As Peter lost the grip on them, they turned visible again. Someone saw them and came running. Peter gasped lightly, noticing more people had came to the scene in the short time he had gone into the inferno, and he made sure he was still invisible. Yes. To the onlookers it would look as if the boy and the woman had found their own way out from the fire and tumbled out behind the statue. Shit, he still wasn't too good with pinpointing the exact location to which he was teleporting. Just needed more practice.

Still unseen, he began to levitate and eventually shot up faster into the sky, flying and viewing the scene from above. It looked like there hadn't been many people on the bus, luckily, and other ambulances had gotten there before he did. He wondered what had made it crash so badly. Soon, he spotted Lynda's van down there and soared downwards until he took ground behind it. Making sure he wasn't in anyone's centre of attention, he became visible again and went to open the van's door.

Lynda jumped and almost hit the roof of the car with her ponytail. "Where the hell did you go?" she shouted.

"I took what I thought was a short cut, but apparently I was wrong," he replied, still standing outside. "Been here for long?"

"Ten seconds before you came storming back, Petrelli. This is at least the third time this week you go off all of a sudden. Wait, are you… cheerful?"

Peter actually smiled. "Looks like nobody died."

"How can you know that if you just got here?"

Peter simply shrugged.

"You are such a weird guy," Lynda sighed, got out and slammed her door.

...

Claire sat on her bed with her favourite pen in her hand and a paper and envelope in her lap. She didn't really know how to end the letter. She wasn't really sure she should send it at all. But what would she do otherwise?

A light knock on the door came before it opened up without the knocker waiting for a reply. Claire's roommate stepped inside and smiled cheerily at her with all the yellowish teeth showing. Cassie just wouldn't stop drinking too much coffee, and of course right now there was a cup in her hand. Probably her sixth for the day.

"Claire-bear, whaddaya up to?" she asked, and then spotted the letter in her lap. "Oooh… you're writing it after all?"

"Yeah… I guess. Dunno if I will send it though," Claire responded, looking down and sighing.

"Of course you should." Cassie said calmly, putting down her cup of coffee on the desk in her corner of the room. "No matter what kind of person he is, he has to care about his own flesh and blood."

Claire chuckled bitterly, images and words flashing by her inner eye. "You really don't know him."

"No, I don't," Cassie said. "But if you send the letter, I might get the chance to. Is he good looking?"

Claire looked up and raised both her eyebrows. "He is my biological father and he is, like, forty or something."

"Ripe and experienced then, with good genes!" Cassie giggled and then laughed a bit louder to let Claire know she was joking. They didn't know each other inside out yet, but in the couple of months since Claire came to the New York University, they had become better and better friends even though they weren't exactly alike.

Cassie had chocolate brown skin and bright greenish-yellowish eyes that were always vivid and glimmering. Her black hair was as curly as hair could be and she wouldn't step closer than two meters from a hairbrush. Her teeth looked white due to her dark skin, but they really weren't. She claimed it was because of her high consumption of coffee, and Claire didn't see any reason not to believe that, since she hardly saw her roommate without a coffee cup in her hand.

The person to whom Claire was writing was Nathan Petrelli. Her bio-dad. They hadn't really got along well before, and after the events of Kirby Plaza, where both him and her uncle nearly died, they hadn't really been talking at all. She didn't demand for him to be there for her, though. He had his own family and life, and she had hers. Or rather she had had hers…

"I see you're still really lost in thought," Cassie said a bit more softly and patted Claire on the head. Claire had not even noticed she had come close. "I'll leave you to it, and you'll come find me if you wanna grab som dinner later, 'k?"

Claire nodded. "Where will you be?"

"Probably at Nick's," Cassie replied smiling as she got out of the room and gently closed the door behind her.

Claire smiled a little lopsided. Cassie and her boyfriend had been together since long before Claire arrived in New York, but they were still so incredibly… in love. She was happy for them, and she was glad Cassie still chose to spend a lot of her time with Claire. Without her, the first months here would have been a lot stranger than they had been now. Nick wasn't too bad either, and Claire guessed she would call him a friend as well.

Claire's thoughts kept wandering further, until she came back to her own family. They were still in Costa Verde. Since Claire decided to move to New York, the others remained back there instead of moving and starting over again. They were still called the Butlers, but Claire had insisted on inscribing at New York University as Bennet.

She couldn't help feeling she was the one who had caused all their trouble, and the feeling grew stronger as her family decided to stay. That meant they had really been doing all that for her, and when she went away they didn't have to run and keep secrets anymore. Of course both her parents would protest if she told them this, but she knew it was true. And that was enough for her to leave.

There was another reason for coming here as well. Not the studies. No, actually Claire didn't care much about her studies. But New York was where her biological family lived. Her adoptive father had probably realized that, and maybe that was the reason he wasn't calling her very often. She hadn't built up the courage to contact the Petrellis yet, though, but somehow she guessed at least her grandmother already knew she was there. Which could mean Nathan knew too. And Peter...

She knew Peter was alive, Nathan had told her. But she hadn't seen him since he exploded in the sky above New York so many months ago. She was really itching to see him soon, and to tell him she was living in the same city as he was, but she didn't really know how to best make contact. There was something about Peter that kept fascinating her... though, there was something about all the Petrellis. Maybe the fact that they were related by true blood. The fact that she was more alike them than any other people on the planet.


	2. Change And Notice

Chapter 2

**Change And Notice  
**

As Peter got home to his apartment, the first thing he did after closing the door behind him was sinking down in the sofa. He sat there for over a minute, without moving a limb. The sofa was new; he had bought it with well-earned money. It had quickly become his favourite spot in the home, and was a great place for mental recollection.

He glanced at the television in the big bookshelf on the opposite wall. That, on the other hand, he wasn't sure he had earned. He had bought it right after he discovered he had a new ability not seen before… But he never used it, since he felt guilty.

One day, he had woken up feeling unusually drowsy and as he had been about to pour milk down into his bowl of cereals, the discovery of suddenly holding a bowl made of gold had suddenly shocked him. Since he had never owned a bowl of gold before, and since his toothbrush also turned to gold some minutes later, he just came to the conclusion he must have met someone with this ability on the street or something and accidentally absorbed it. Which was rather strange, as most often he at least had to remember a person in order to use their ability. Maybe someone he had met and remembered, had this ability without him knowing it?

The TV glared back at him with its blank black screen, and he soon had enough of it and got up.

A knock on the door startled him. He never had many visitors, save from his mother and brother once in a while just because they felt obligated to visit him. He didn't have time to spend with friends, since he was working so much overtime. Saving people's lives had become his new purpose in life, even though Nathan called it Peter's sport.

Peter strode over to the door and peered out through the peeking hole, expecting to see Nathan standing there looking stressed and annoyed. But what he saw there made him flinch, and he quickly opened the door, jaw dropped.

"Hello there, chump," the blonde man said, smiling. "Mind if I come in?"

"Adam!" Peter exclaimed. "How did you… didn't Hiro-"

"Oh, yes he did," Adam Monroe said darkly and stepped right past Peter into the apartment. "You've made this place really cosy, by the way," he then said and lightened up again. "New ability?"

"How did you get out? And… what new ability, no I didn't… hey," Peter said, having a bit of a hard time gathering his thoughts.

"Alright, sit down," Adam said. "Want some tea?"

Peter fell back down into the sofa for a moment, until he realized the strangeness of him being served tea in his own home by a person who had recently betrayed his trust and been buried alive. He got up, starting to get a bit mad.

Adam was rummaging the kitchen, when Peter grabbed his wrist and made Adam face him.

"Answer my questions, before you make yourself at home here, villain," he said sharply.

"Villain, now that was a bit harsh, wasn't it? It was all for the greater good,"

"How did you get out of the coffin?" Peter said without caring about Adam's words.

Adam pulled his arm out of the grip, looking straight at Peter. "I've been screaming regularly, twice a week perhaps. Not easy when you haven't got any air to scream with, but finally somebody heard me and dug up the grave. The warden of the cemetery. He wasn't a little surprised."

"So what, you killed him?"

"Oh Peter, come on. I don't kill random people unnecessarily."

"No, you murder billions."

"I didn't… oh, well. I didn't kill him, I paid him to shut up. Maybe he wont, but it's not like I really care."

"And why did you come here?"

"I fancy you?" Adam said brightly and took his cup of tea from the shelf.

Peter snatched it from him, nearly spilling some onto the floor. Adam sighed. "Right... I'll go, then," he said and left the kitchen.

Peter could hear the door to the apartment slam, but didn't really believe the blonde man was gone until he came out into the living room and saw it empty. He stood there, swaying on his toes with the cup in his hand, for a couple of seconds. Then he swore, put the cup down and ran out into the corridor.

"Stop," he demanded Adam, who was just skipping down the stairs.

Adam turned around with a rather hurt expression on his face, bordering puppy eyes. It was Peter's turn to sigh, and roll his eyes.

"I don't understand what you're doing, but fine. We'll have tea," he said.

...

Claire walked through the park in the university area, in an effort to clear her mind a bit. The sun was shining brightly, making her sweat and wish she had brought a bottle of water with her for her promenade. As if he heard her wish a guy suddenly appeared, walking in the opposite direction holding a big bottle of water. His reddish hair was cut very short and he had the air of a bright person about him. Claire smiled politely when she saw him, and he smiled back.

"Hi Nick," she said when they were close.

"Hi there, Claire," he said, and seemed to notice her stealing glances at his bottle. "Thirsty?"

"Oh yes, god thank you," Claire said and thankfully took it.

"Have you seen Cassie?" Nick asked her while she was drinking.

She wiped her mouth dry and happily handed the bottle back. "Nope, I thought you guys always knew where the other were?"

"Well, almost," Nick confessed, smiling tenderly. "But sometimes she just gets away without telling me. I reckoned she was spending time with you then, but I guess she doesn't."

"Maybe she's found another friend?" Claire teased him. They both knew very well that Cassie was overall well liked, among both girls and guys. Especially among guys maybe, but Nick didn't seem too worried and Claire didn't suspect Cassie would ever do something to hurt him.

"Yeah… she's found many, alright," Nick said, looking into the distance, almost pensively.

"Something's bothering you?" Claire asked and made them start strolling on in her direction, glad to spot a chance to talk about someone else's problems for a while instead of her own. Cassie was actually the only real friend Claire had bothered to make here, and that girl didn't seem to have any problems at all.

"Nah, not really, I guess," Nick said, maybe feeling a bit awkward about speaking of such things with his girlfriend's friend. "It's just… I like knowing where she is, what she's doing."

"And you hate not knowing," Claire finished for him. "Yeah, a typical boyfriend. Congratulations, Nick. You're normal!"

Nick chuckled lightly, looking down on his feet. "Maybe. It's just… I hope she's not getting into trouble."

Claire wrinkled her eyebrow. "Why would she? She's one of the sweetest people I ever knew."

"Now, yeah. But never mind," Nick said in a way that made Claire too interested to let the subject fall.

"What do you mean?" she said, stopping again. "Was she different before?"

Nick didn't look at her, but rather looked around as if he didn't really want anybody to hear. "A bit, yeah," he said. "She was much more… emotional."

"Nothing wrong with showing your feelings."

"I mean, really emotional. You could almost feel the emotions flooding out of her, whether she was happy, angry or sad. Especially when angry. That was what she was like when I first met her, last winter. But when she's with me, she seems to feel better and keep calmer. Have you ever seen her angry, Claire?"

"No, I don't think so," she said, pondering what he had said.

"And she grew to like me pretty fast. I… I grew to like her too, and eventually we never wanted to be apart. Literally, we spent almost every hour of every day together. Lucky thing we were taking the same classes."

"Sounds like you were in love," Claire said, smiling softly.

"Mhm," Nick said, finally looking up into Claire's eyes. "But this semester, I think she's changed. Ever since… since you came."

Claire's eyebrows shot into the sky. "You blame me for changing her? I haven't done anything on purpose-"

"Relax, I didn't mean to be rude," Nick said calmly. "It's just like, she spends a lot of time with you, and sure I'm happy for that. She isn't as dependent on me anymore."

"You sure you're not jealous or something?" Claire said cautiously.

"No," Nick said, chuckling again. "But it's got me noticing something."

Claire's smile got a little stiff as she felt a strange prickling sensation on her neck. When people talked about change and noticing things when she was around, she always couldn't help fearing the worst… had Cassie somehow found out about her ability and told him?

"She's turning back into her own self, slowly," he said, and Claire let out an invisible breath as she realized he was still talking about his girlfriend. "Of course I want to let her be whoever she is, but… since she's getting different when she isn't with me, I've been… It's like there's something with me… like I'm the one changing her, and not just because we're in love, I mean…"

Claire got another thought, when she heard him speak like this. It wasn't impossible… after all, this wasn't the first time she had met another person with abilities in school. She briefly thought of West Rosen.

Nick's cheeks suddenly turned very red. "I'm sorry, Claire, I shouldn't be speaking like this, I don't know what I was… Oh, never mind, forget that, will you?"

He laughed a little, but Claire didn't. She was just looking curiously at him, which seemed to make him feel even uneasier.

"Maybe," she said. "Anyway, thanks for the water. I should be going."

And then she flashed him a smile and started walking away. He stood looking after her for a moment, before walking away too.

* * *

**_So, yeah... please tell me if anything's unclear :p_**

**_And of course, Peter got that ability from Bob Bishop. I don't think Bob ever displayed it to Peter, but he should be able to use it anyway, since he remember Bob pretty well. After all, he could use Sylar's telekinesis when training with Claude, before even knowing it belonged to Sylar._**

**_Review please :3  
_**


	3. One Day Soon

**_Since my chapters are pretty short, I'll try to update often, but probably not very regularly :p_**

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Chapter 3

**One Day Soon**

Adam raised the teacup to his face, smelled it with his eyelids closed and sighed with content before taking a long sip of the hot beverage. After the first sip, he went on to glug down almost all the rest. In the meantime, Peter sat as far away from the blonde man as he could in the same couch and fixed him with a stare that could melt mountains. Luckily for Adam, he could probably outlive mountains with or without melting stare.

Adam glanced at him. "So, you want the short story or… the long story!" he wondered.

"Very short," Peter replied down-to-earthedly.

"Oh, Peter. You disappoint me. I could go on forever about my history and my thoughts on life and…"

"Really, really short."

"Fine," Adam snapped and sat his cup down. "I got out from being buried alive, and believe me, I've made a mental note to revenge that Japanese nazi one day... But now when I am free from my prison, where do I go? When I got out from my last prison…" Here, Adam paused and smiled vacantly. "I've been to many prisons," he added before continuing. "Anyway, when you and I escaped from the Company, I had a goal to reach. But my plans were thwarted and right now I don't see the possibility to repeat them. So what do I do? Where do I go?"

Peter assumed it was a rhetorical question, and even if it hadn't been, he wouldn't really have bothered answering it. Adam cleared his throat.

"I've had hundreds of women through my 400 years of living, Peter. And a few good friends… Most of which eventually turned on me, or simply died off. Most people tend to be rather mortal, I've noticed. My last friend, was you."

"Friend?" Peter spat out. "You were using me, the whole time. You only knew you needed my powers to get out and get where you needed to go."

"Maybe so, but only shows I'm a man knowing what he wants and how to get it. Or rather, I happen to become a man like that once in a while. Circumstances!"

"Even so, you are no friend of mine," Peter said, his eyes narrowing even more.

"Really? Think about all our long talks together. You trusted me."

"And you betrayed that trust!"

"Like so many others before me," Adam said and let his eyes wander to a framed picture on the bookshelf. It depicted Peter, his older brother and his parents. "Say, wasn't your mother and brother going to blow up this city once? For the greater good of all? Wasn't that a betrayal too?"

"Probably because you had once given my mother the crazy idea that the world needed to be purged from the beginning."

"Oh, she got that idea by herself, as did all the other founders of the first Company. All I did was push them further together," Adam said, letting of a white smile. "Thing is, you've forgiven your brother and mother now-"

"Thing is, I once loved them and wanted to love them again. I never loved you," Peter said in an almost mockery tone.

"Peter! Where does all this bitterness come from? You live a happy life now, don't you? Also, you so did admire me."

Peter sighed. "What do you want from me, really?"

Adam raised his cup of tea, as well as his eyebrows.

"Apart from tea, I mean," Peter muttered. "To be friends? To hang around after work and catch lunch occasionally?"

"Lunch would be nice, yeah," Adam said almost dreamingly. "But for starters, I would settle for a home in your apartment."

Peter had just risen his own cup to his mouth, but now spat out the little he had drunk onto the living room table.

"Hm, I guess I should have told you how hot it was. Your regenerating ability isn't as polished as mine is after 400 years."

"You are not living here," Peter coughed.

"Not yet, I am not. But if you will let me put a tiny bed in a corner of your bedroom, I will soon."

"Look, Adam, I don't know in which manner you used to live your way through all the years… all the lives you've lived. But this life, you're not going to spend it in my apartment. In fact, before I even consider seeing you again when you've gone out the door now, you should prove you're not just a villain."

Adam laughed a little. "You want me to play hero? Save a cat from a tree or something? Will that make you trust me?"

"I don't know. But it would be nice to know you were capable of something like that, regarding what you were about to do if I hadn't changed my mind about you in the last second."

Both Adam and Peter sighed at the same time. Adam's eyes wandered on, reaching another framed picture on the bookshelf. One of a blond girl.

"And who do we have here, an ex girlfriend or more relatives?" he said, getting up to get closer.

"That's Claire," Peter said a bit hesitantly. "She's my niece."

"Really?"

"I told you about her. When we were at the Company."

"She's special too, isn't she?"

Peter looked at the picture, him too, and couldn't help letting a smile escape his lips. "Yeah."

…

"So, for the party, I was thinking purple! Not everyone can wear purple in a good way, but I'm pretty confident I-"

"What, what party?" Claire stopped her roommate who was rummaging her wardrobe, tossing numerous colorful skirts onto her bed.

"The color themed party, Claire!" Cassie said, looking a little annoyed. "Haven't I told you about it? Sure I have!"

"Oh, right," Claire said, suddenly remembering. "But… are you going?"

"What kind of question is that, Claire-bear? I'm in the middle of choosing clothes here."

Claire swallowed and watched her eye the different skirts. She had met Nick this morning again, and he had told her he was taking Cassie on a trip this weekend. Either the two of them had decided to go to the party instead, or Cassie had bailed on him but Claire found that a bit hard to believe. He probably meant for the trip to be a surprise. Claire was just hoping his girlfriend wouldn't be upset when she missed the party.

"What's Nick gonna do this weekend then?"

"Why you wondering? I don't have to be with him ALL the time," Cassie said and rolled her eyes.

What Nick said about Cassie turning into her own self suddenly sprung to Claire's mind.

"So, what do you think?"

Claire snapped out of it, and looked up at her.

"Purple or green?"

"Purple," Claire said and smiled gently. "You are one of those people who can wear it really well."

Cassie's face shone up into a wide smile, and for a moment Claire almost thought she could feel the warmth of the smile hitting her like a pleasant breeze.

...

In a different part of the same town, a hooded man walked down a greasy street. He had lots of things on his mind. Where would he go, who should he meet... how was he going to find the people he wanted to meet? There was one way. But he had walked down that road before, and he wasn't really eager to try it again. Besides, there was probably an easier way to find what he craved more than anything right now.

Sylar lifted his head, looking up into the sky. One day he would be flying up there. One day soon he would be the rain, the storm and the sunshine. And he was going to live forever. That was the most important thing in order to become significant again. Even more significant than before. Praised and loved or loathed and feared... the difference between the two was unessential, but the path to one of them was so much easier than the other. And more fun.

Now, where was his little blonde key to immortality hiding this time?

* * *

**_Dun dun duuuuunhhhh! 8D_**


	4. With Infinite Certainty

**_I should add something. I realize Claire is a bit young to go to college in season 3. But let's pretend she's older in this story than in the actual volume 3._**

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Chapter 4

**With Infinite Certainty**

Peter let out a short shriek and sat straight up. It took him a few moments to bring himself fully back from the strange state he had just been in.

He was sitting on his beloved couch. Strange… he didn't usually take naps in the evening, but he was sure he had just been asleep. Or had he? At least he had dreamed. And what a horrible dream. He sighed and got up to fetch a glass of water, as he tried to remember what the dream had been about. His shift would start pretty soon, but he normally never was in any hurry, since he could teleport or fly anywhere in the blink of an eye. Literally.

As he poured water into the glass, the images slowly came floating back to him. A big building… a girl, and a man. A hooded man. A scream, and…

He dropped the glass into the sink.

"Claire!" he gasped.

…

All the windows in the house were lit up and the noise from the crowd inside reached long ways outside the students' apartment building. As Claire entered the designated corridor on the third floor, the people in the vicinity immediately turned to look at her. She was wearing a shimmering, rather short, emerald green skirt for the evening, accompanied with a black tube top. The outfit would have made her look rather bland if it wasn't for the big, cute bowknot, which was sewn onto her right breast.

Claire didn't like the students looking. But their looks weren't menacing, as soon as they recognized her. They politely welcomed her to the party and invited her to chit-chat with them. The indestructible girl planted a smile of relief on her face and did her best to keep up with their conversations.

Eventually though, she found herself drifting off on her own down the corridor, watching and saying hello to many more or less drunk people on the way. She accompanied a few girls down to a corridor on the second floor, which was less crowded but seemed to host more people who were absurdly drunk or possibly high on something else.

Claire knew very well the reason for nearly all the people being nice and welcoming toward her here. She was Cassie's friend, and they all were friends with Cassie, one way or another. It was incredible how many people that girl had charmed. Though, she had managed to charm Claire as well, so she understood them very well.

Cassie had agreed to go with Nick on his surprise trip this weekend. At first she had not exactly been happy about it, though. Claire had overheard them arguing in their room earlier this day, without daring to enter. For a moment, Cassie had really been sounding furious. But then Nick seemed to start talking in a manner Claire hadn't heard before. Seductive and demanding at the same time. It worked, because the next second, Cassie had been laughing. Claire dared to enter the room, and she found them hugging each other, smiles on their faces. They really seemed to understand each other like no one else did.

She found a room someone had left unlocked, and went inside to open a window and get some fresh air. It was close to necessary with the weird fog that was hanging around this floor, probably due to whatever the students in the neighboring rooms were smoking. Claire stuck out her head and closed her eyes in the soft night breeze.

She didn't drink. Sometimes she took a beer just for participating in the social game, but she never got the least drunk or even tipsy feeling. Her body regenerated from the pollution of the alcohol too quickly. She suspected it would be the same if she tried smoking anything, even if it was just a common fag.

Her hands went up to support her head as she leaned harder on the windowsill. God, she was such a sociopath these days. She used to be a cheerleader! One of the popular girls. And now, she was a boring ghost, not really fitting in anywhere. Of course, college was a bit different from high school; people actually weren't exactly as immature and focused on popularity as when she was younger, but still.

It was all because of this stupid "gift" of hers. It had turned her into a freak, into someone who weren't normal and could no longer look at the world with the eyes of a naïve teenager.

Just as Claire was starting to feel miserable for not even trying to be part of the party, she could hear another person entering the room, stepping slowly closer to her from behind.

Claire froze. Like with so many other things, she hated when people sneaked up behind her without announcing themselves. Only this time, the announcement came before she had time to react.

"Feeling light-headed?" a male voice came from behind. The accent was somewhat hard to place, but it sounded kind of British.

The girl spun around to vaguely see a guy stand in the dim light from the window. He was wearing a dark blue suit and he looked a bit older than her. Of course, she was pretty young to be a college student. There were students who could even be over the age of thirty. He could have been one of them, though Claire wouldn't bet on it, as his playful smile made him look rather young and alert.

He didn't look very menacing at all, so she decided to simply be friendly.

"Yeah," she said and smiled while trying to look tired. "Lots of fresh air in the corridors to help me with that."

"Poor bastards," the man said and walked up to stand beside her, sticking out his head through the window as well. "Doing anything to fit in."

A muscle in Claire's face twitched in the moonlight. "And you don't?"

The man turned his face to her and chuckled quietly. "I'm not the guy who fits in."

Claire's boy-sense immediately tingled. It read this guy as the kind who thought of himself as popular and tried to hit on girls by pretending to be deep and special. What a loser.

"I know the feeling," she said, preparing a nice little speech to scare him off. "I actually used to be like everybody else. An ordinary schoolgirl, a cheerleader like any other cheerleader. But then something happened. And it was as if my whole life suddenly fell apart, and I wasn't like… like anyone else anymore. Nothing I did turned out right, and no one I got to know stayed with me. I wasn't normal any longer. I had become a freak. And to this day, I'm not sure I will ever be able to fit in anywhere again…"

Somewhere in the middle of her speech, it struck her; maybe it was true, all that she was saying now. She would never be normal again.

"I will be a freak… for all of eternity," she said in a slightly different tone, almost directed at herself. It felt strange saying the truth out loud. But as far as she knew, she might never die.

It took a few seconds before she noticed that the man was still leaning on the windowsill, watching her. She met his gaze, and wondered what freak he himself could be when he seemed to think she was interesting rather than creepy now.

His regard was difficult to interpret. He looked casually interested, but Claire could have sworn she saw a distant glimmer in his bright eyes. She unconsciously took another look at him.

His short cut hair was just as bright blonde as hers, if not even brighter. The eyes were a bright blue color, very alike her own, only with a tone of ice never seen in her more sky blue irises. His complexion looked smooth; he was well shaved. Of course he was, these kind of guys probably spent more time dealing with their appearance than she did.

"What," she said to break the silence, as if the music booming from the floor above didn't already make sure it wasn't quiet anywhere tonight.

"Maybe you will," the man said and turned his eyes away from her, looking out. "Or maybe you'll eventually wake up to realize that it's the world who's freaky. Not you."

Claire was a bit taken aback by his words. He just kept coming back with an answer.

"Oh, I already know the world is freaky," she said. "I'm just one of those things that heighten the freakishness quite a bit."

"How come? You seem like any other girl to me."

Claire involuntarily snorted. That wasn't really the thing to say if you wanted to impress someone. Sure, she would appreciate it if he knew what she was really capable of, and still said it.

"Thanks," she said rather sarcastically.

"Don't get me wrong, you're quite weird to be standing here alone instead of lying in a tangled mess with someone in a room upstairs, on a night like this," he said, seemingly to make up for his last line. "You don't even look drunk."

"Heh, well I'm not the girl who gets drunk," Claire chuckled bitterly, thinking of how her liver kept regenerating the damage any trace of alcohol dealt to it. "Besides, you're pretty weird too, since you're here too."

"Already told you so, didn't I?" the blond man said and winked at her.

"Who are you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"With infinite certainty, the oldest living person on the campus tonight," he answered cryptically, looking down on the lawn outside. "And I, um, have to go," he added before Claire could spell out a reply to his words.

He gave her one last smile, lips closed, and left the room quickly like a wind. Claire shook her head, feeling puzzled, and looked outside. Across the lawn, she could see someone marching quickly towards the building. The determined walk assured her it wasn't a drunken student. Was it a cop?

As his face became visible in the light of a street lamp, her heart jumped. It was Peter!

* * *

**_Yay, some kind of action coming up._**


	5. The Necessary Things

Chapter 5

**The Necessary Things**

Peter!

Claire had trouble believing what she saw. Peter was walking across the dark lawn, towards the building where the party was held. Why was he here? And what would he think of her, seeing her on a party like this?

She rushed out of the room and through the corridor. Thoughts ran through her mind and her body ran into several people along the road. Someone grunted and someone shouted something nasty after her. She didn't care about them.

Was he coming here to pick her up? But she hadn't called him, or anyone. Was he going to the party? No, why would he do that, he was a grown man with a job and the chances of him having a girlfriend or even a friend at the university were ridiculously low.

As she spurted down the staircase, she front collided with someone on the first floor.

"Sorr-"

But she didn't manage to say the whole word before a hand suddenly was holding her by the throat, and she could feel an unnatural force push her back into a door, which swung open and let her be pushed by the attacker into to a deserted corridor.

Her mind didn't register what was happening, until she was somehow slammed into the wall and kept hanging there, without touching the ground. The squeezing hand let go. The familiar situation brought all the memories back. She wanted to scream with all the parts of her body when she saw the figure standing in front of her with his hand still stretched out. With the other hand, he pulled down his hood and revealed the dark face, smiling the smile Claire hated most in the whole world.

No… she had been saved, the others had saved the cheerleader and killed the villain… this couldn't be… this couldn't be the end, she was going to live forever…

"Claire!" a voice came from down the hall.

Sylar's head turned, and his eyes barely had time to widen before a fierce blue lightning bolt struck him.

Claire finally screamed, and fell down onto the floor. She looked towards the stairwell and saw him. Peter. He was coming to save her. Of course. Her hero, again.

Peter's hand ceased to sparkle and the unlit corridor turned shady again. He could still see them though. Sylar, panting on the floor in the other end of the corridor, fighting the cramps that Elle's flashy ability tended to bring. And Claire, slowly getting up from the floor just in between them, keeping her eyes set on him. On Peter.

He felt his heart flutter in a way he couldn't really explain. He had not really thought this through, in the rush of getting here as soon as he realized that he had the dream because of his mother's ability. If he had wanted to see Claire again, he had not really wished for it to be in a situation like this. But then, this was the way they usually met, it seemed.

_Family to the rescue_, he thought and clenched his fists.

Sylar got onto his feet, furious. Petrelli. That damned precog. He raised a hand and flicked a finger. A door next to Peter suddenly flew up and hit him in his back. Peter groaned and stumbled forward, but then disappeared into thin air.

Sylar hesitated. Right… he still had that invisibility power. The villain slowly began moving forward in the corridor, back to the nervous girl. She fixed him with a stubborn stare, her initial panic having gone away. She probably felt secure now, when her clumsy Peter Parker had arrived to save the day.

"You can't kill me," she said.

"How do you know?" Sylar said, smirking. "I haven't fully had the chance to try yet... Because you always seem to have your little guardians around you. You really can't make it on your own, can you?"

"I'm doing just fine!"

"That's right, I was just about to snap your head open and spread your lovely brains all around the place for people to see. But you'll do fine, yes. You are so special."

Sylar's eyes got a dangerous glimmer that turned Claire paralyzed. Then, Peter suddenly phased out from the wall next to Sylar, using D.L.'s ability. He punched Sylar hard in the face, reminding the villain of how many powers he had actually gathered. Niki's super strength apparently came in handy sometimes.

As Sylar squirmed on the ground, slightly blurred from the strong punch, Peter felt his hands light up with a familiar glow. Ted Sprague's ability. Indeed, it wasn't the easiest to control, but he had given it some practice by now, so he might as well use it for something.

He stepped close to the villain and made sure to show his burning hands. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't blast you to pieces right now," he said darkly.

Sylar looked up at him, not a single trace of emotion in his visage.

"Do it, Peter!" Claire shouted.

That made something shift inside Peter. He briefly turned his head to look at her. She looked bewildered, standing pretty close to him. Her sky blue eyes were reflecting the yellow radioactive burst from his hands. She really meant it. She was ready to kill a man. No, ready to let Peter kill him for her.

But it hit him like a punch. He wasn't a killer. He saved lives, he didn't take them.

Of course, Sylar took this golden opportunity to act. He flung his arm out and telekinetically pushed Peter into Claire and sent them both slamming into the wall. When they regained their breath, the corridor was empty. Sylar had escaped.

Claire felt her ability heal some bruises on her back, as she sat on the floor with Peter almost on top of her. As he healed up his own pain as well, he rather quickly moved away from her and got up. He stretched out a hand to help her up, but he wasn't looking straight at her.

"Peter…" she said.

"He will come after you again," Peter said. "Maybe it would have been better if I had killed him."

Claire swallowed.

"But I'm not sure I can," he continued and finally locked eyes with her. "I've never taken a life before. I haven't… I simply haven't had to. Not even when I faced Sylar before. There were others more… capable."

"Don't talk like that," Claire interrupted him and put on a worried look. "You're the most capable person I know. You saved my life."

Peter began to smile, even if it was a rather sad smile. He put a hand on her shoulder, gently stroking her with his thumb. She felt warm where he touched her. There really was something about the Petrellis. Maybe because she was a Petrelli too… somehow.

"You are so much more capable than me," Claire said quietly.

"That's not fair. I'm older than you, of course I know better how the world works. Or I wish I did."

Claire leaned her head a bit, and a smile tugged her lips. At least he was trying to comfort her.

"How have you really been?" Peter asked and retreated his hand.

"I've been good," she answered. "Can we leave the party?"

"Of course," Peter said, his smile almost widening in its lopsided way. He started to lead her down to corridor back to the stairwell. "I'll walk you home. Though…"

"Are you going to call my dad?"

Peter glanced at her. "Aren't you going to?"

Claire grimaced. "He will take me home. He won't let me live in New York."

"Claire, if it's safer for you there…"

"It isn't! No matter where I move or where I go, someone comes after me. I'm a freak in more ways than one. I seem to be a living magnet to villains."

They went out of the building, and Peter watched Claire as she gazed hopelessly up onto the moon.

"I live just down this lane," she said blankly, pointing somewhere in the distance.

"The second building on the left?" Peter asked, and got a nod as an answer.

They walked together to the building and Peter even followed her inside, seeming somewhat lost in thought all the way. Claire didn't dare to talk much, because of his pondering look.

As they reached her door and Claire was wondering if she was going to have to tell him not to come inside her room, he finally spoke.

"Pack your stuff. The necessary things."

Claire stared at him, one hand resting on the doorknob. "What, are you going to take me home to your place?"

_Thinking about it… he can probably protect me better than anybody else, with all his abilities. And… I don't really want him to leave now._

Peter flinched slightly when he realized he had involuntarily read some of Claire's thoughts. She did have a point though, and to be honest, he didn't really want to leave her yet after finally seeing her again. But that wasn't really what he had had in mind.

"You might say that," he said, dragging out his words a little. "I won't force you, but I would really feel better if you weren't at the campus tonight."

Claire gave him a confused look, but went inside the room and started to pack a bag. Cassie of course wasn't there, as she was out with Nick somewhere on their trip. Peter stayed outside for the few minutes it took her to re-emerge and lock the door behind her.

"But where are we going?"

Peter took a deep breath before doing the next thing. He stepped close and gently pulled Claire into an embrace. She didn't seem too surprised by that, and willingly rested her heavy head against his chest. He felt his heart flutter in that strange way again, and found himself wondering if she could hear it. But this wasn't the time. If there was ever a time.

"Petrelli Mansion," he said and closed his eyes narrowly. And the corridor was empty again.

* * *

**_How did you like the interactions between the characters? I strive to keep them true to their personalities in the show._**


	6. Blasted And Manipulative

_**I am very busy these upcoming weeks, but I will post a chapter now to prove I am not abandoning this story ;) It's even a liiiittle bit longer than usual.  
**_

_**We all love us some Peter/Claire moments, Nathan/Claire moments and... we have all wanted some Adam/Claire moments... have we not? So the story will go on, to give you just that!  
**_

* * *

Chapter 6

**Blasted And Manipulative**

Claire blinked and the next second she was standing in the middle of a great room. The walls and the roof were of chestnut colored wood, and a dining table took up some space in the middle of it all, standing silently on the white marble floor.

"Oops," Peter said. "I meant to land on the doorstep."

Claire looked up and gave him a raised eyebrow. "What if you happen to teleport into a wall one day? You should practice."

"I guess," Peter muttered.

At the same moment, Angela Petrelli walked into the room. She opened her mouth in surprise, and Peter and Claire jumped out of the embrace they were still in. But Angela seemed to calm herself quickly.

"Claire," she said and nodded, as if she didn't even had to acknowledge Peter's presence.

"Mrs. Petrelli," Claire said and nodded as well. "I'm sorry for... standing in your dining room all of a sudden. Peter took me here,"

"Sylar attacked her," Peter said seriously, looking at Angela.

"I know," Angela simply said.

Peter opened his mouth but closed it again, a few times, before saying: "You had the dream too?"

"I did. I did not know you were taking her here though. But I realize why, and it's no problem. We have a lot of spare bedrooms."

"Thank you," Claire said and made an effort to smile at her grandmother.

The smile was returned, slightly.

"Alright, you take care of her?" Peter said and took a step away from his niece.

Claire's head darted around, looking confused. "Aren't you staying?"

"I have work in the morning, it's not as if I could sit up and chat anyway," Peter explained, but saw her disappointed look. He found some kind of guilty happiness in seeing her miss him. "But we'll chat tomorrow, if you stay the day and go home on Sunday?" he added.

Claire shone up a bit. "Sounds fine. And Peter… thank you."

Peter smiled his special smile and raised his hand to gently stroke one of her blond curls with his finger, before it wandered on to quickly touch her cheek. "Anytime," he said, blinked and was gone.

Claire remained there, still feeling the warmth of his touch in her face. After a while she noticed Angela was still watching her, with a strange expression on her face.

"Come, child," she said gently. "Let's get you a bathroom and a bed."

…

The next morning, Claire awoke wondering where she was. She remembered the party last night… but she couldn't get drunk so she surely couldn't have ended up in some weird place without memories, could she? And then she remembered Sylar.

She sat up in the big bed and looked around. This was… the Petrelli Mansion. Right. Peter had taken her here, to protect her. And he had wanted her to stay one more night and go home on Sunday. She'd better text Cassie before she and Nick got home, or else Cassie would probably worry herself to death.

Claire got up and got dressed, in jeans and a not too fancy chemise. She then spent some time in the luxurious bathroom connected to the bedroom and afterwards skipped down the corridor thinking of finding something for breakfast. What she didn't think of finding was the thing she spotted walking by the bottom of the stairs when she had already taken some steps downwards. And that thing had clearly spotted her.

Her biological dad.

"Claire?" he said, and seemed to half-choke on the biscuit he was holding part of in his hand.

"Nathan," she said, feeling a bit awkward, "hi."

Of course he was here, he was living here, it was his mansion, why hadn't she thought about that? Or wait… didn't he have wife and kids and a house of his own? But he was probably here to visit. No matter, she was totally not ready to see him. She had absolutely no idea of what to say.

Nathan stopped coughing and looked up at her again. He was dressed in dark gray pants and a white shirt. An official look. Either he was soon going off to his office, or he always dressed like this no matter if he was at home on the couch or at a press conference.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a sharp tone.

"I was… your mother said I could spend a few nights here," Claire replied and continued walking down the stairs.

"She did?" Nathan looked around as if he thought he would see Angela watch over them like a hawk from somewhere. "Just like that? She didn't think of the inappropriate situation, with you being my illegitimate offspring and all?"

"Nobody knows that, and it's actually not 'just like that'," Claire said, not a little offended. "And 'offspring'? That's what you call me so you can forget I'm a living person?"

With that, she stormed past him, towards what she hoped was the kitchen.

"I didn't mean… Claire!" Nathan shouted after her, but she kept walking.

She didn't quite know why she got so upset. He was right, after all. Her whole life she had, for all she and he had known, been the daughter of someone else. It wasn't as if they could start bonding easily and feeling like father and daughter starting now after all these years. He had his own life. And she wasn't part of it, more than as a sad memory in the past. But… maybe she had hoped to find something like a new family in the Petrellis, a family that accepted her for who she was and what she could do. Nathan pretty much crushed that dream though. Oh, where was Peter when she needed someone who understood her?

"That was unnecessary," Angela said to Nathan, stepping out of a corridor.

Nathan jumped a little, but then rolled his eyes. He knew his mother had been watching. She always was.

"What should I say then?" he asked, waving his arms in slight frustration. "That's the way it is. I can't take her back now, it's too late."

"Well, if you've decided for that, I guess it already is too late," Angela sighed and walked past him after Claire.

Nathan stared after them. Did they expect him to have a good answer and a planned future when he stumbled upon her all of a sudden in his own home? Blasted women.

…

Peter woke up, got ready, had breakfast and glanced thoughtfully at the big black tv screen. He never watched tv, but the screen had started to become his personal mental mirror. He would go back to the Petrelli mansion after work this evening, to spend some time with Claire as he said he would. Maybe Nathan would be home as well, and they could hang out with him too. Peter suspected it wouldn't be too easy for Claire, as the only fatherly feelings Nathan had shown towards her before had been part of a show to trick her.

He let out a low breath and opened his door, getting out into the corridor.

"Hey there, mate," Adam said and totally startled the dark haired man.

"Adam! What are you doing here?" Peter said sourly as he locked the door behind him.

"I wanted to check in on you. Everything's fine?"

"Yes, everything is fine."

Peter started walking down the hall, but Adam followed him.

"I was thinking of something," Adam said. "You've met a villain called Sylar, haven't you?"

Peter's eyes flashed him a murderous look, but he kept half running down the stairs, Adam in his heels.

"Sylar wants nothing other than power. To be the strongest and most dangerous person in the world. He is crazy, and if you thought he could help you with some of your evil schemes, you are probably wrong," he said and exited the building.

"That was not really what I had in mind," Adam said. "What is the power a person like that would want the most?"

"I dunno, radioactive hands maybe? To be able to threaten whole countries into making him their king would probably suit him."

"Not at all," Adam said, sneering. "A person like that wants to stand out from the crowd and overcome any hinder. He wants to be a god. And what are gods?"

"Illuminating?"

"Immortal."

Peter stopped his march down the street and turned to face the blond man. He already knew Sylar was going after Claire. Why would Adam care about Peter's niece? He couldn't know what Claire's ability was, could he? But then, come to think of it, her ability was exactly the same as...

"You're afraid," Peter said slowly, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, afraid is perhaps the wrong word. More like concerned. I've been around the world for 400 years. What would it be like if I was suddenly gone and an immortal Sylar took my place instead? The man, the monster, who only cares about power and significance, without and grand schemes of thought-through-ness?"

Peter chuckled, almost in unbelief. "You are… well, unbelievable. You want me to protect you, is that it?"

"You get the point quickly, friend," Adam said and smiled largely.

"No," Peter said and resumed his walking.

"Oh, come on. Don't just abandon me like that," Adam said, a bit hurt, and kept following him.

"Like you abandoned me when we were breaking into the lab?"

"Hey, who was abandoning who? I got freaking teleported into a grave! And you suddenly chose to hop over to the other team."

"You mislead me. I don't think I even want to forgive you."

"So if Sylar comes to get me, you will just let me die?"

"How do you know you even can die?"

"He probably has his ways."

"I don't know, I don't really care."

"An indestructible Sylar would be so much more dangerous than the one present now."

"Why does everyone think Sylar is my personal problem? He's just a bad guy whom others and I happened to stop from blowing up New York once."

"He's a murderer. And what are you? A saviour. A hero. You're not like me, you couldn't even take lives for the greater good of mankind. You can't sit by now, watching innocents die."

Peter stopped again. If Sylar got more powerful, Claire would be in even greater danger. On the other hand, maybe not. Since Claire's and Adam's abilities were pretty much the same, maybe Sylar would leave Claire alone if he took Adam. But then… could he really let Adam die? He wasn't really human after having lived for 400 years, but he was a person. And he had been Peter's friend. He admitted to himself a part of him actually missed the time they spent together.

"And Claire, whatever ability that girl has got, Sylar will be after her, won't he? And your brother and your mother… a hunted family," Adam said, without knowing he was proving that he couldn't read Peter's thoughts. "You might as well protect as many as you can. And I'll help you!"

"You'll help me protect yourself?"

"No, you'll protect me and I'll help you protect the others you care about. I'm not totally without powers, you know."

"You're gonna heal yourself until Sylar falls dead from old age, or what?"

"Silly. I'm trained in martial arts, and I can handle almost every weapon imaginable."

"Really," Peter said. "How come you can't protect yourself then?"

"Partly because two heads are better than one. Partly because my skills aren't always enough. And partly because… well, it's boring to be on your own, isn't it?"

Peter and Adam stood quiet in the street for a while, people and sounds rushing by in the morning light.

"I'll do it," Peter finally said.

"I knew you would," Adam smiled and put a firm hand on Peter's shoulder.

"You did? Seemed kinda desperate to me."

"Because you still haven't teleported away. You could have done that the instant you saw me. But you didn't, which means you unconsciously wanted to listen to me. I knew you were still my pal," Adam said, blinked and walked past Peter into the rushing morning crowd.

Peter raised an eyebrow and grunted. Manipulative bastard.

* * *

**_I hope I'm not making Adam too cheery ^^ But I like him this way. Sorry if I'm making Peter his grumpy contrast right now, hopefully he will have time to be cheerful too. Though... he is_ _pretty low in the show, is he not? XD_**


End file.
